Company description

The Quivira Coalition, a non-profit founded in 1997 with an office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, builds soil, biodiversity, and resilience on western working landscapes. We foster ecological, economic, and social health through education, innovation, and collaboration.

• Our Land and Water program helps ranchers develop plans and management strategies for restoring and building resilience on slope wetlands, grasslands, and other working landscapes.
• Our New Agrarian program helps to ensure that living and working knowledge of these practices, and the landscape itself, is stewarded into the future.
• Our Education program, including our annual conference and open source publications, creates a space for our coalition to share ideas and resources, and for the general public to learn about the critical role working lands play in the health of our food systems, communities, and our planet.

At the foundation of all our work is the concept that well managed working rangelands and forests are two of the most effective, efficient, and immediately viable paths to remedy the devastating impacts of climate change.

Job description

The Quivira Coalition seeks a New Agrarian Program (NAP) director to start November-December 2018. NAP offers apprenticeships in regenerative agriculture with mentor ranchers and farmers in the West. It provides the next generation of producers with hands-on mentoring from dedicated land stewards who practice regenerative methods of food production; provide excellent animal care; and are skilled and dedicated teachers.

The NAP director is a people-oriented facilitator who has worked with agricultural producers and/or in experiential education. An ideal candidate enjoys mentoring young professionals and is passionate about solving current food production and ranching/farming challenges. This person should also live near Santa Fe, New Mexico or be willing to relocate and be computer literate. The position also requires travel to ranches, farms, conferences, presentations, and other work events (15-20 percent of time is out of office).

The NAP director will work closely with mentor operations to help guide them through the apprentice application and hiring processes, will continue to hone and deliver mentor training, and will facilitate and provide guidance for both apprentices and mentors through their year together. They will be responsible for helping mentors schedule and execute activities associated with their apprenticeships.

The NAP director is responsible for management, implementation, and partial fundraising of Quivira's apprenticeship program. Specific duties and responsibilities include:

Coordination

• Provide support with mentor/apprentice relationships as needed; foster professional development.
• Implement application process for potential new program mentors; continually seek out new and prospective mentors to design and develop new apprenticeship opportunities.
• Ensure good mentor rapport and successful apprenticeships at each mentor location
• Conduct in-depth, annual check-ins with mentors to debrief most recent apprenticeships and discuss program components, successes and challenges.
• Maintain regular contact with mentors and apprentices to check-in on apprenticeships; facilitate any necessary conversations to support good communication.
• Help design and implement necessary changes to ensure ongoing success in the apprenticeship program.
• Collaborate with educational partners, such as Holistic Management International, to ensure a well-rounded educational experience for apprentices
• Oversee marketing, advertising, outreach and public relations for NAP.
• Help design and develop new and creative ways to advance program goals (e.g. job fairs, newsletters, local outreach, collaboration, etc…).
• Maintain a growing network of new agrarians and established producers; help facilitate connections between current and future generations of food producers and land stewards.
• Coordinate with program partners on collaborative grant projects and apprenticeship network building.
• Hire and supervise the New Agrarian Program assistant and any contractors working on photography, outreach or program support.

Outreach

• Regularly engage local, regional and national agrarian communities by conducting site visits to potential host ranches and farms, and to other agricultural apprenticeship programs and agricultural advocacy organizations.
• Conduct site visits and outreach with the aim to recruit new mentor operations into the New Agrarian Program.
• Actively contribute to strengthening and expanding of the national Ag Apprenticeship Learning Network, a win-win network of regenerative agricultural operations and organizations nationwide, through regular outreach efforts and travel as needed.
• Foster a continuing dialogue among agricultural apprenticeship programs nationwide, with the objective of raising standards for training and education of new agrarians and increasing capacity for individual programs to expand and thrive.
• Represent Quivira and the New Agrarian Program at relevant events in the community and by actively seeking opportunities to present to relevant conferences.

Development

• In cooperation with the executive director, expand the reach of the New Agrarian Program by designing, funding, and implementing new ideas that provide leadership training, networking, and capacity-building support for new agrarians and prospective mentors.
• In cooperation with the executive director, build rapport with existing and potential major donors for the New Agrarian Program. Strive to secure multi-year funding.
• In concert with the executive director and office administrator, create and manage the program budget to ensure financial sustainability and longevity.
• Facilitate program growth while maintaining high quality standards and regenerative agriculture criteria for prospective mentors.

Additional Tasks

• Represent Quivira at various functions, conferences, workshops, etc. Work with collaborative community partners to achieve common goals (e.g. LandLink, Farm to Table, National Young Farmers Coalition, Santa Fe Community College Center for Sustainable Technologies, University of New Mexico Sustainability Studies, Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, and others).
• Collaborate with other staff members and engage with other Quivira program areas as needed.
• Attend and actively participate in the annual Quivira Conference as the representative for NAP.
• Participate in board and staff meetings, retreats, and strategic planning meetings.

Desired qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or comparable experience
• Experience working in agriculture
• Experience working one-on-one with students in an experiential learning context
• Experience working in a nonprofit environment
• Ability and desire to work outdoors, lift 50 pounds, and pitch in on ranching or farming operations occasionally
• Exceptional organizational, writing, and other communication skills
• Comfort and familiarity with word processing, spreadsheet, G Suite, Asana and Slack particularly desirable
• Residence in or near Santa Fe, New Mexico (or willingness to relocate)

Terms of Employment

• Reports to the executive director
• Three-quarter time, hourly ($20 - $25/hr DOE), with flexible work schedule and potential to become full-time over the next year
• Benefits after three months including health, 401K, and generous, flexible paid time off

Compensation

Application instructions

Deadline

October 26, 2018